I am home feeling very sick today, so the Greek book and I have a personal appointment. I thought that since I have time, I would write about why I wanted so much to learn biblical languages. I've become able to put this in words in a way that I could not do in the past.

When I first spoke to another blind person about learning Greek, he asked me why. I said something about wanting to be able to read the New Testament in Greek. He said, "That's not reason enough. You'll be a busy pastor, and you'll forget most of it." He pointed out that there are tools to use if I want the background of a term, etc. But that wasn't enough for me, and I knew that he was wrong about me. I couldn't explain why, but I knew.

I didn't want the meanings of terms. I wanted the conceptual understanding that comes from thinking in the original language and actually going through the translation process myself. There are things that really can't be expressed in English the way they are expressed in Hebrew or Greek; and I wanted to get at those things because I think they are important to spiritual growth. How I will use that in my teaching I don't know; but that should have been my first clue that I was meant to teach biblical studies.

It's not any of his business why you want to learn Greek, and his response was definitely uncalled for and out of line. I'd have been upset at that, who does he think he is to dictate to you?

I think it's great that you're learning Greek and Hebrew. It allows you to have - not necessarily better - but deeper understanding of the source material. So much gets changed in translations as it is, I see no harm in being able to read it in its original form.

I think he thought I would be wasting my time and it would be too hard. Of course, it's up to me if I want to do something hard that ends up wasting my time. I don't regret it a bit. I'd actually like to keep learning languages. But at some point I need to quit learning new languages and use the ones I know.

I think learning the Greek and Hebrew gives you a better understanding of the text too and that is definitely a good thing because much of the original language has gotten lost in our modern translations.